EXACTLY a year ago today, the peace panels of the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in Malacañang Palace.

President Benigno S. Aquino III and MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim led the signing that capped at least three years of negotiations between the government and the MILF since Aquino became president in 2010.

The landmark agreement was hoped to pave the way for the creation of a new, unique, and in some ways controversial political subsystem in the country that many hope would put an end to almost four decades of fighting in the Southern Philippines.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called the agreement “a momentous act of courage” by both the government and the MILF rebels. Razak graced the signing of the agreement in Malacanang Thursday afternoon, since Malaysia has taken a very active role as an intermediary for the two sides.

The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro provides for the creation of the only parliamentary substate in a country that has always had a presidential form of government. The BangsaMoro would take the place of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), an earlier political experiment on Moro self rule that has been branded by both the government and the Moro rebels as a failed experiment.

PRESIDENT AQUINO, second from right, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, led in the signing of the CAB in Malacanang Palace, March 27, 2014 | Photo by Julius D. Mariveles

THEY WANDERED into the Palace grounds, some with the confident strides of hardened and fearless combat veterans, others with the uncertainty of warriors suddenly confronted with the violent colors of pomp and pageantry.

Several hundred representatives from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front joined diplomats and dignitaries, government officials, civil society members, and even their old enemies from the Armed Forces of the Philippines at the Kalayaan Hall grounds in Malacanang Palace on Thursday to witness the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, a peace agreement aimed at ending four decades of strife in the Southern Philippines.

Read also the accompanying article “Of warriors and peacemakers” by clicking on the photo below.

Murad in his old office in Camp Abubakar, 1999 | Ed Lingao Photo

Want to know more about the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro? Click the photo to view the document on the website of the Office of the Presidential Adviser On the Peace Process.

MILF delegates arrive in Malacanang Palace on March 24, 2014 for the CAB signing | Photo by Julius D. Mariveles